probably more than you want to know About WhippleWare
In 1991, a guy named Ben Whipple used a then-new computer
language to write software for his doctoral research at MIT. Ben was mostly delighted with
the language ( aka VB) but was
frustrated with certain aspects of it. He created an optimization tool for his own use
that went on to win numerous awards and sold tens of thousands of copies. He expanded the
product line with other programming tools, and rode high on the hog while VB and desktop programming grew
explosively in the 1990s. In 1993, 3 companies' products received Editor's Choice Awards
from the premier industry magazine, ; Microsoft,
Borland... and WhippleWare! It was great fun while it lasted.
Then along came the world wide web, slowly deflating the VB balloon as Microsoft's efforts
to reposition VB for programming the web proved too little too late. VB didn't die
(there's still an awful lot of Windows desktops out there) but the growth and excitement
in the programming world moved to web-oriented markup languages, scripting languages, and
Java. Many companies selling VB tools disappeared. Always conservatively managed,
WhippleWare did not, though Ben did stop spending big bucks on advertising.
When the Internet bubble burst, the
programming business imploded with it. Good programmers went from near-rock star status to
unemployment, with insult added to injury as many of the jobs that remained were
"outsourced" to India. Needless to say, it became difficult to make much of a
living selling programming tools.
So whither WhippleWare? Would Ben
have to throw in the towel and get a real job? Go back to making furniture? Finish his
PhD? As Ben contemplated these big questions (see Ben takes a sabbatical), he considered
several things and gradually came to a conclusion:
1) He was born to write software.
It's to someone
who's never done it, but programming computers poses simultaneous technical and aesthetic
challenges that can thoroughly engage both halves of the brain with intense creative
activity. Ben loves doing it and he is very good at it (during the VB boom, for example,
two much larger companies attempted to market competitive tools but Ben's tools blew them
away -- see What Customers Say). So if at
all possible, he wanted to keep writing software.
2) Manipulating images with
computers had been a hobby for years. Ben was scanning photographs with a fax machine 10
years ago and playing with whatever imaging software was available (anyone remember
DrawPerfect?). He bought his first digital camera in 1999 and immediately began creating
software tools for personal use to fiddle with the images (and yes, he started posting
family pictures on the web).
3) There aren't as many people
writing VB software as there used to be, but there are a
whole lot more people using digital cameras. The digital camera market exploded
in 2003, when the technology hit a sweet spot with reasonably priced cameras and printers
able to create images that looked every bit as good as film but with all of the benefits
of being digital. Film photography seems well on its way to joining buggy whips in the
technological dustbin.
4) People's satisfaction with
digital photography is mediated by the software they use to manage and manipulate the
output of their digital cameras. Discussions with camera owners and a review of available
software convinced Ben that therein lay an opportunity. Hence:
WhippleWare Imaging Products (WhIP)
The goal of WhippleWare Imaging
Products, broadly stated, is to create and sell software tools that increase user
satisfaction with digital photography. Put less grandly, the goal is to simplify the
process (hence tools like the Camera Download Wizard), yet at
the same time make more accessible some of the very cool things that can be done with
digitized images (hence tools like the upcoming Image Composer). WhIP is aiming for a
niche somewhere between the mostly lousy free software that comes with cameras and
overpriced professional tools like .
While the product line at
WhippleWare is changing, the basic principles of doing business that brought previous
success are not:
Our customers are not only
always right, they give us our best ideas. So when you contact WhippleWare, you'll talk to
the guy who writes the code. And he'll listen to you.
We maintain no inventory,
continually test and improve our products, and fix all problems when reported. We don't
ship software with known bugs. Our tech support line hardly ever rings, and we want to
keep it that way.
We trust our customers and
unconditionally guarantee their satisfaction. None of this
"unless you open
the package" or "if it doesn't do what we say it does" nonsense. If you
aren't 100% satisfied for any reason at all, simply uninstall and return the product
within 30 days and we'll refund everything except shipping and handling. The only question
we'll ask: Why weren't you satisfied?